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Innovation Policy and Performance

A Cross-Country Comparison

This publication examines the relationship between innovation policy and economic performance in six OECD countries – Austria, Finland, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom. In-depth analyses highlight countries’ strengths and weaknesses in innovation, as well as the effectiveness of their innovation policies in driving economic performance. Taken together, the country studies constitute a rich evidence base which will be of considerable interest to innovation policy makers in all OECD countries. They indicate that countries share a need to adapt – or even profoundly change – their innovation policies in order to deal with opportunities and threats posed by new technological and economic developments.

Annex 1. Guidelines for Preparing Country Notes

Participating countries were asked to prepare short accounts of their own innovation performance, using a set of qualitative and quantitative indicators. They were asked to give their own overall assessment of the relative strengths/weaknesses of their national innovation system (NIS) and of the relationship between their innovation performance relates and the overall stance of the country’s innovation and RTD policy, including the implementation of specific policy instruments (e.g. government-funded R&D, patenting and licensing policies for public research organisations, public/private partnership programmes, cluster policies). The OECD Secretariat provided countries with a...